Method and system for establishing a trust association

ABSTRACT

A method for establishing a trust association includes receiving, by a server, a request to associate a web source with an account, the request having a link to the web source, and accessing, by the server, the web source in response to the request to associate. The method further includes locating, by the server and within the web source, a tag associated with the account, creating, by the server and in response to locating the tag within the web source, a trust association between the account and the web source, and providing, by the server, an indication of the trust association for display in a user interface of a client device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e), this application claims benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/814,042 filed on Apr. 19, 2013, entitled“WEB IDENTITY VERIFICATION.” U.S. Provisional Application 61/814,042 isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Users of the Internet can have any number of online identities,profiles, and presences. As a result, trusting a user's identity isdifficult. As the Internet continues to grow, some segments of theInternet staunchly hold on to anonymity, while other segments areattempting to associate online information with one or more trustworthyidentities, including real-world identities.

SUMMARY

In general, in one or more aspects, the invention relates to a methodfor establishing a trust association. The method comprises receiving, bya server, a request to associate a web source with an account, therequest comprising a link to the web source; accessing, by the server,the web source in response to the request to associate; locating, by theserver and within the web source, a tag associated with the account;creating, by the server and in response to locating the tag within theweb source, a trust association between the account and the web source;and providing, by the server, an indication of the trust association fordisplay in a user interface of a client device.

In general, in one or more aspects, the invention relates to a methodfor establishing a trust association. The method comprises: receiving,by a server and from a client device associated with an account, arequest to associate the account with a web source; identifying, by theserver and within the web source, a tag associated with the account;creating, by the server and in response to the tag, a trust associationbetween the account and the web source; sending, by the server and tothe client device, a confirmation of creating the trust association,wherein the client device displays an indication of the trustassociation.

In general, in one or more aspects, the invention relates to a system.The system comprises: a server, executing an application forestablishing a trust association and comprising functionality to:receive a request to associate a web source with an account, the requestcomprising a link to the web source; access the web source in responseto the request to associate; locate, within the web source, a tagassociated with the user; create, in response to locating the tag withinthe web source, a trust association between the account and the websource in the SN; and provide an indication of the trust association fordisplay in a user interface of a client device.

Other aspects of the invention will be apparent from the followingdescription and the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A shows a schematic diagram in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 1B shows an example web source code in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B show flowcharts of a method in accordance with one ormore embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows an example in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe invention.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show an example in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5 shows a computing system in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Specific embodiments of the invention will now be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying figures. Like elements in the variousfigures are denoted by like reference numerals for consistency.

In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention,numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a morethorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well-known featureshave not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicatingthe description.

In general, embodiments of the invention provide a method and system forestablishing a trust association between an account and a web source.Initially, a link to a web source is obtained from the account. The websource is accessed, and an authorization to associate the web sourcewith the first account is identified within the web source, such as atag. Using the authorization, an association between the account and theweb source is created. Optionally, additional steps may be performedsuch as displaying an indication of association on the account (such asa badge, icon, etc.), gathering data about mentions of the web source,generating reports, ranking the account higher in search results (orother results) based on being a trusted account, etc.

Embodiments of the invention have many potential uses, in many differentcontexts. In one embodiment, the accounts are on a social network (SN),or another messaging platform. Alternatively, the accounts may be on aweb site, within an application (e.g., a video game, operating system,etc.) or any other suitable location. As such, when a specificembodiment is referred to in the specification, the invention should notbe limited to the specified embodiment.

For the purposes of this disclosure, a trusted account is an accountthat has a confirmed relationship with a specified web source, such as awebsite. The trusted account does not necessarily mean that thereal-world identity of the user (e.g., a real person's name, address,etc.) has been confirmed. Rather, the trusted account indicates that theaccount has provided evidence that the owner of the account is who theyclaim to be. For example, if an account is a member of a band, and theyprovide a link to the band website (which confirms their membership inthe band) the account would be trusted, and users of the SN are able toview the association and know that the account is more likely to be forthe member of the band than an untrusted account. Trust association mayhave additional effects, such as enabling the account to view reportsabout the mentions of the web source on the social network, or havingthe account rank higher in search results based on the associationand/or the knowledge of a link between the web source and the account,etc. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, having thebenefit of this disclosure, that there are many ways to trust an accountand many potential effects of trust association and, as such, theinvention is not limited to the above examples.

FIG. 1A shows a schematic diagram of a system in accordance with one ormore embodiments of the invention. Specifically, FIG. 1 shows a socialnetwork application (100), a client (120), and a web source (160) inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the invention. The socialnetwork application (100) may also be referred to as a messagingplatform in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention.

A social network application (100) connects users to other users of thesocial network application (100), exchanges social networking messagesbetween connected users of the social network application (100), andprovides an interface for a user to create and view social networkmessages (e.g., via client (120)). In one or more embodiments of theinvention, social network messages are broadcast social networkingmessages that are transmitted to at least a set of users. The users inthe set may be self-selected (e.g., followers of the transmitting user)or users that satisfy a certain status with the transmitting user (e.g.,belong to a group such as friends, family, etc.). The social networkingmessages may include, but are not limited to, a comment from a user, areference to a network location, personal status update, an officialstatement by a user representing an organization, a reference to anotheruser of the social network, one or more terms descriptive of themessage, an offer to buy or sell goods, and other information not listedabove. The social networking messages may also include, but are notlimited to, text, universal resource locators (URLs), pictures, mediafiles, multimedia files, and other elements not listed above. In one ormore embodiments of the invention, the social network application (100)may include restrictions on the size of messages, such as a restrictionon number of characters, size of included media, and other restrictionsnot listed above.

As shown in FIG. 1A, the social network application (100) has multiplecomponents including a frontend module (125), a graph fanout module(130), a delivery module (135), a message repository (140), a connectiongraph repository (142), a stream repository (144), an account repository(146), a association repository (148), a trust engine (150), and arouting module (155). Various components of the social networkapplication (100) may be located on the same device (e.g., a server,mainframe, desktop Personal Computer (PC), laptop, Personal DigitalAssistant (PDA), telephone, mobile phone, kiosk, cable box, and anyother device) or may be located on separate devices connected by anetwork (e.g., a local area network (LAN), the Internet, etc.) using anycombination of wired and wireless connections using any combination ofcommunication protocols. Those skilled in the art will appreciate thatthere may be more than one of each separate component running on adevice, as well as any combination of these components within a givenembodiment of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the social networkapplication (100) is a platform for facilitating real-time communicationbetween one or more entities. For example, the social networkapplication (100) may store millions of accounts of individuals,businesses, and/or other entities (e.g., pseudonym accounts, noveltyaccounts, etc.). One or more users of each account may use the socialnetwork application (100) to send social networking messages to otheraccounts inside and/or outside of the social network application (100).The social network application (100) may be configured to enable usersto communicate in “real-time”, i.e., to converse with other users with aminimal delay and to conduct a conversation with one or more other usersduring concurrent (which may include simultaneous) sessions. In otherwords, the social network application (100) may allow a user tobroadcast social networking messages and may display the socialnetworking messages to one or more other users within a reasonable timeframe so as to facilitate a “live” conversation between the users.Recipients of a social networking message may have a predefined graphrelationship with an account of the user broadcasting the socialnetworking message. In one or more embodiments of the invention, theuser is not an account holder or is not logged in to an account of thesocial network application (100). In this case, the social networkapplication (100) may be configured to allow the user to broadcastsocial networking messages and/or to utilize other functionality of thesocial network application (100) by associating the user with atemporary account or identifier.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, social network application(100) includes functionality to track mentions of web source (160) onthe SN, and to generate reports. The mentions may be tracked in, and thereports may be generated in any manner now known or later developed.Additionally, the reports may contain any amount and/or type of charts,graphs, data, etc.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the routing module (155)includes functionality to receive one or more social networking messagesand to store the social networking messages in the message repository(140). The routing module (155) may include functionality to assign anidentifier to the social networking message and to store data about thesocial networking message. The routing module (155) may further includefunctionality to notify the graph fanout module (130) of a sender of thesocial networking message.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the graph fanout module(130) includes functionality to retrieve graph data from the connectiongraph repository (142) and to use the graph data to determine whichaccounts in the social network application (100) should receive thesocial networking message. The graph data, for example, may reflectwhich accounts in the social network application are “following” aparticular account and are, therefore, subscribed to receive statussocial networking messages from the particular account.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the delivery module (135)includes functionality to receive a list of accounts from the graphfanout module (130) and the message identifier generated by the routingmodule (155) and to insert the message identifier into stream dataassociated with each identified account. The delivery module (135) maythen store the message list in the stream repository (144). The datastored in the stream repository (144) (“stream data”) may make up one ormore streams associated with one or more accounts of the social networkapplication (100). A stream may be a dynamic list of social networkingmessages associated with one or more accounts or may reflect anyarbitrary organization of social networking messages that isadvantageous for the user of an account.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the frontend module (125)is a software application or a set of related software applicationsconfigured to communicate with external entities (i.e., client (120),web source (160), etc.). The frontend module (125) may include theapplication programming interface (API) and/or any number of othercomponents used for communicating with entities outside of the socialnetwork application (100). The API may include any number ofspecifications for making requests from and/or providing data to thesocial network application (100).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the frontend module (125)is configured to use one or more of the data repositories (e.g., messagerepository (140), connection graph repository (142), stream repository(144), account repository (146), and/or association repository (148)) todefine streams for serving social networking messages (i.e., streamdata) to a user of the account on the social network application (100).A user may use any client (120) to receive the social networkingmessages. The client (120) may be any computing system (as defined belowin FIG. 5). For example, where the user uses a web-based client toaccess the social network application (100), an API of the frontendmodule (125) may be utilized to define one or more streams and/or toserve the stream data to the client for presentation to the user.Similarly, different forms of message delivery may be handled bydifferent modules in the frontend module (125). In one or moreembodiments of the invention, the user may specify particular receiptpreferences, which are implemented by the frontend module (125).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, one or more of the datarepositories (e.g., message repository (140), connection graphrepository (142), stream repository (144), account repository (146),and/or association repository (148)) is a database and/or storageservice residing on one or more servers. For example, one or more of thedata repositories may be implemented as a storage service usingservice-oriented architecture (SOA) and configured to receive requestsfor data and to provide requested data to other components of the socialnetwork application (100). In another example, the message repository(140) may include one or more tables in a distributed databasemanagement system (DBMS), a clustered database, a standalone flat file,and/or any storage software residing on one or more physical storagedevices. Examples of a storage device may include, but are not limitedto, a hard disk drive, a solid state drive, and/or other memory device.Any type of database or storage application may be used, in accordancewith various embodiments of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, one or more of the datarepositories (e.g., message repository (140), connection graphrepository (142), stream repository (144), account repository (146),and/or association repository (148)) is a separate application or set ofapplications residing on one or more servers external (andcommunicatively coupled) to the social network application (100).Alternatively, in one or more embodiments of the invention, one or moreof the data repositories may be an integrated component of the socialnetwork application (100) and/or may reside, either partially orentirely, on one or more common hardware devices (e.g., a server).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the association repository(148) may store data relating to the associations of accounts on the SN.For example, association repository (148) may store information aboutweb sources used to associate accounts, which accounts are trusted,trusted account membership data (such as the drummer of a band, areporter for a news organization, etc.), and/or any other data relatedto trust association of accounts.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the message repository(140) includes functionality to store message data items that includesocial networking messages and social networking messages metadata. Thesocial networking messages metadata may include, but is not limited to,an identifier of the originating user of the social networking message,a list of users who received the social networking message, a number ofusers who received the social networking message, statistics (e.g., aratio of connected users to the originating user that forward the socialnetworking message versus disconnected users to the originating userthat forward the social networking message), time and date in which thesocial networking message is transmitted, and other information. Themessage repository may also include functionality to store engagementdata items.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the connection graphrepository (142) stores information about users' connections.Specifically, the connection graph repository may relate useridentifiers of a user to other users' identifiers, user's preferences,and history in the social network application (100). For example, theuser preferences and history may include language, connections of theuser, topics in which the user is interested and other information.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the account repository(146) stores information about users' accounts. Specifically, theaccount repository (146) may store account data items that includeinformation about a location of a user, a self-description of the user,interests of the user, whether the account is a verified account, etc.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the web source (160) is anyidentifiable location on the Internet. For example, the web source (160)may take the form of a commercial website, personal website, a blog,social networking profile/website, business profile, etc. In oneembodiment of the invention, the web source (160) is a collection ofsource code and, optionally, other content (e.g., audio files, mediafiles, image files, text files, etc.). The source code of the web source(also referred to as “web source code”) may be executed, interpreted orotherwise processed by a web browser (executing on a client) in ordergenerate a web page that may be displayed to the user via the webbrowser. Web source (160) is accessible to the user via one or moreclients (120). A user, in any manner now known or later developed, isable to exercise control over web source (160) so that tag (165) may beinserted into web source (160), where such a user may be acting on theirown account, on an account associated with another user and/or on anaccount associated with a legal entity. There are many relationshipsthat the user may have with regards to web source (160), including, butnot limited to: owner or co-owner, administrator, member of (such asprofessional members, band memberships, etc.), employee of (such as areporter for a news website, etc.), and or any other relationship.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the tag (165) is anindication that an account on the SN is associated with web source (160)and/or an authorization to associate the account on the SN with the websource (160). Tag (165) may include the name of the account on the SNwith which is associated. For example, the tag may say “my account nameon SN is 123abc.” Tag (165) may include other information, such as anoption to friend or follow the account on the SN, recent messages fromthe account, related accounts/memberships, and/or any other data. Tag(165) may take any form now known or later developed. For example, tag(165) may be a rel-tag in the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) of websource (160). As another example, tag (165) may be an hCard, which is aformat that allows vCards to be embedded within an HTML page. Tag (165)may be invisible to a viewer/user of web source (160). Alternatively,tag (165) may be visible to a viewer/user of web source (160).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, tag (165) may be created byand/or provided by the SN, such as through a software development kit(SDK), application programming interface (API), or any other suitablemethod. Alternatively, tag (165) may be custom made by a user. In one ormore embodiments of the invention, tag (165) may contain membershipinformation (e.g., drummer in a band, etc.), may identify associatedaccounts (e.g., identify the official account for the band, identify theofficial account for the record label of the band, etc.), and/or maycontain any other data relevant and/or useful to identification. It willbe apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the benefit ofthis disclosure, that tag (165) may be implemented in many differentways, in any language or format, and may contain a variety of data and,as such, the invention is not limited to the above examples.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, there may be multiple tagswithin a single web source. For example, if the web source is thewebsite of a band, a tag may be present for each member of the band.When one (or more) members of the band request a trust association becreated between their account and the band website, the SN may detectthe additional tags present within the website, and present the optionof creating an association to those additional accounts. Alternatively,a one-way trust association may be created. In other words, rather thanthe account identifying a web source and the web source identifying anaccount (i.e., via a two-way association), a one-way trust associationoccurs when a web-source identifies an account, but the account does notidentify the web source. This one-way trust association may be used in asimilar manner to a trust association: the account (and contentoriginating from the account) may be promoted more so than an untrustedaccount. However, this promotion may be to a lesser degree than if atwo-way association were present. Alternatively, the promotion may bethe same as if a two-way association were present.

Turning briefly to FIG. 1B, a web source code (180) is shown for a websource (i.e., web source (160)), including an example tag (185).Specifically, web source code (180) is pseudo code for a portion of aweb source, in HTML format. Within web source code (180) is example tag(185) stating: <a href=http://examplesocialnetwork.com/mySNaccount/”rel=“me”> My SN account </a>. In this instance, example tag (185) wouldprovide a hyperlink clickable by a visitor to the web page created byweb source code (180), and the hyperlink would direct the visitor to anaccount on the SN—“mySNaccount.” The presence of this tag in the sourcecode of a web page may then be used to create a trust association with“mySNaccount.” It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art,having the benefit of this disclosure, that there are many ways toimplement a tag and, as such, the invention is not limited to the aboveexample.

Returning to FIG. 1A, In one or more embodiments of the invention, thetrust engine (150) includes functionality for accessing a web source,locating and/or identifying a tag within the web source, creating atrust association with a web source(s) and an account on the SN, sendingconfirmations, determining memberships, and/or any other functionalityneeded to implement one or more embodiments of the invention. Trustengine (150) may access a web source in any manner now known or laterdeveloped. In one or more embodiments, a web bot, such as a web crawler,may be used to access a web source. Alternatively, any other method maybe used to access a web source. Once the web source is accessed, thetrust engine (150) includes functionality to locate and/or identifywhether any tags associated with the SN are present within the websource. The tags may be identified and/or located using any manner nowknown or later developed. For example, if a bot or other similarsolution is used, the bot may analyze the code of the website to searchfor the tag. As another example, if the tag is visually represented onthe web source, then screen scraping may be used to locate and/oridentify the tag. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in theart, having the benefit of this disclosure, that the tag may be locatedand/or identified in many ways and, as such, the invention should not belimited to the above examples.

In one or more embodiments, the trust engine (150) may create anassociation between a web source and an account on the SN by confirmingthat the account that provided the link to the web source is the sameaccount identified by the tag on the web source. Once an associationbetween the account and the web source is confirmed, the trust engine(150) may modify the account's data on the SN and indicate that theaccount is trusted, may give the account the ability to display atrusted graphical element, such as a badge, or other indication of trustto other users of the SN, and/or any other special abilities orprivileges. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the trustgraphical element may be displayed on any suitable part of the userinterface (UI), and may indicate a strength, or weight, of verification.For example, an authoritative web source on a subject matter and/or apopular website may lend more strength to the association than a websource that was created yesterday, lacks content, and/or is not popular.Likewise, when multiple different web sources are associated with anaccount the result may be reflected as a stronger level of trust (i.e.,there is a greater likelihood that the individual is who he or she saysthey are). For example, if an account is associated with two websources, that account may receive a stronger (or higher) trust levelthan an account associated with only one web source. The strength of thetrust may be displayed using color coding, numbers, different images,and/or any other suitable method. Similarly, memberships (discussedbelow) may be displayed in any of the above ways, or in any other mannernow known or later developed. If shown, the membership information maydirectly indicate who the account is related to (i.e., the band, the websource, another SN account, etc.).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the trust engine (150) mayinclude functionality for determining memberships and/or relatedaccounts. When trust engine (150) locates additional social networkingaccounts tagged within a single web source, the trust engine (150) mayalso allow the account(s) the option of associating themselves using theweb source if they were not the account requesting association.Additionally, the trust engine (150) includes functionality foridentifying memberships, and may allow accounts the option to displaythat they are a member of an organization or entity (e.g., member of aband, reporter for a newspaper, associate at a law firm, etc.) uponassociation if the membership data was located in the tag on the websource provided by the account.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, upon association, the trustengine (150) may send a notification to the account informing theuser(s) of the account of the results, whether or not the associationwas successful. Once trusted, the user of the trusted account (or a userthat has access to the trusted account when the account is associatedwith a legal entity, such as a corporation) may have access to reportsgenerated about the mentions of the web source on the SN. The reportsmay include any gathered or processed data, and may be formatted and/orpresented in any manner now known or later developed.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the trust engine (150)includes functionality for promoting trusted accounts, content generatedfrom trusted accounts, and/or any other actions related to a trustedaccount. For example, the trusted account may be promoted (in comparisonto untrusted accounts, etc.) in a who to follow service, which providessuggested accounts for a user to follow. Similarly, content generatedfrom trusted accounts may be promoted and displayed more often to users,and may receive higher rankings in searches. Further, trusted accountsmay be more often used to deduce interests of users viewing the trustedaccounts. These interests, in addition to the other data discussedherein, may be used to serve ads to the user(s) viewing the trustedaccounts.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the trust engine (150)includes functionality for creating a one-way trust association. Aone-way trust association occurs when a web-source identifies anaccount, but the account does not identify the web source. This one-waytrust association may be used by trust engine (150) in a similar mannerto a trust association: the account (and content originating from theaccount) may be promoted more so than an untrusted account. However,this promotion may be to a lesser degree than if a two-way associationwere present. Alternatively, the promotion may be the same as if atwo-way association were present.

The trust engine (150) can be configured to store a one-way associationis the association repository (148) for use in content recommendation,though it may not be displayed to users of the SN. For example, thetrust engine (150) can be configured to identify accounts having commoninterests and/or relevance to a context account. In this example, if aweb source identifying multiple accounts is deemed to be relevant to thecontext account, all accounts having associations with the web sourcecan be positively weighted for inclusion in a set of recommendedaccounts. Those accounts having two-way associations can be weightedmore heavily than accounts having one-way associations by a predefinedamount (e.g., 50%). In another example, a client may send a request forrecommended messages to the SN. In this example, the web source,associations, and related accounts can be identified as in the priorexample. After identifying the related accounts, the trust engine (150)can be configured to identify and rank relevant messages from therelated accounts. In this example, messages from accounts having atwo-way association with the web source are weighted more heavily thanmessages having a one-way association with the web source. Thus, in oneor more embodiments of the invention, the trust engine (150) can beconfigured to use trust associations to identify relevant accounts,relevant messages (messages promoted as advertisements), and/or any typeof associated content (e.g., images, video, text, advertisements) forpromotion to one or more accounts of the SN.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the trust engine (150) isconfigured to perform the methods described in FIGS. 2A and/or 2B.

The invention is not limited to the system shown in FIG. 1A. Further,though not shown in FIG. 1A, any component in FIG. 1A may be connectedto any other component shown in FIG. 1A without departing from theinvention.

FIG. 2A shows a flowchart of a method for establishing trustassociations between an account and a web source. While the varioussteps in this flowchart are presented and described sequentially, one ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate that some or all of the stepsmay be executed in different orders and some or all of the steps may beexecuted in parallel. Further, in one or more embodiments of theinvention, one or more of the steps described below may be omitted,repeated, and/or performed in a different order. Accordingly, thespecific arrangement of steps shown in FIG. 2A should not be construedas limiting the scope of the invention.

In Step 200, a tag is included in a web source. The tag may be of anyformat, such as an HTML tag, vCard, hCard, hyperlink, etc. The tag istypically included in the web source by the user of an account on theSN, on behalf of the user of the account on the SN, or on behalf of alegal entity (e.g., a company, a corporation, a partnership, or anyother type legal entity) that controls the account on the SN. The tagindicates that the user (or legal entity) of the account has access toor control over web source, and is an authorization for use inestablishing a trust association between the account and the web source.As indicated by the dotted line, Step 200 is performed outside of theSN.

In Step 205, a request to associate an account with a web source isreceived. The request may be received in any manner now known or laterdeveloped, and may be received from any suitable source, such as a userof the account, a user of the SN viewing the account, a user acting onbehalf of a legal entity that controls the account, etc. In one or moreembodiments of the invention, the request may optionally include a linkto the web source and/or any other suitable data.

In Step 210, a link is obtained to a web source from the account. Thelink may correspond to a universal resource locator (URL), a universalresource indicator (URI) or any other information in any form that maybe used to locate the web source. The link may be obtained, for example,from the profile of the account on the SN. Alternatively, the link maybe obtained from the request, or any other suitable location. In one ormore embodiments of the invention, the link is viewable to other usersof the SN. Optionally, in one or more embodiments of the invention,multiple links may be obtained in Step 210, allowing the account to beassociated using multiple web sources, and resulting in a stronger orhigher level of trust. In this embodiment, Steps 215, 220, and 225 maybe performed as many times as necessary.

In Step 215, the web source is accessed using the link Morespecifically, the link may be used to locate the web source. Oncelocated, the web source may be accessed in any manner now known or laterdeveloped, such as by web bots, such as crawlers, or any other suitablemethod.

In Step 220, the tag is located in the web source. The tag may belocated by analyzing the code of the web source, performing screenscraping, or by any other suitable method now known or later developed.The tag may be located in any suitable portion or part of the websource.

In Step 225, an association between the account and the web source iscreated. The account may be created after comparing an account name,handle, or other identifier associated with the tag to the account name,handle, or other identifier associated with the account on the SN. Whenthere is a match (based on the above comparison), an account is trusted.When there is no match, (based on the above comparison), an account maybe denied association. The association may be created and/or stored inany manner now known or later developed.

Optionally, in Step 225, other SN accounts or aspects may also beconfirmed, such as memberships. For example, if the tag includesinformation identifying that the account is a member of an entity,organization, etc., the membership may be confirmed by checking with atrusted account associated with the entity, organization, etc. (such asthe official account for the organization, etc.). Additionally, in Step225 other accounts that are identified within the web source (e.g., asecond tag, etc.) may also have associations created in any manner nowknown or later developed.

In Step 230, an indication of association is provided for display. Theindication of association may take any suitable form, such as a badge,icon, text, picture, sound effect, etc. The indication of associationmay be viewable by all users of the SN, only by friends, followers,and/or subscribers to the trusted account, or by any other suitablegrouping of users of the SN. The badge (or other suitable element, etc.)may be color coded, change shape(s), change type(s), display numbers,and/or use any other manner to indicate the strength or level of trust.That is, if an account is associated with a particularly good (i.e.,authoritative, popular, etc) web source, and/or multiple web sources,the level of trust is stronger than if, for example, the account usedonly a single, unpopular web source. As indicated by the dotted line,Step 230 is optional, and may or may not be performed.

In Step 235, mentions of the web source are tracked on the socialnetwork. As indicated by the dotted line, Step 235 is optional and mayor may not be performed. Mentions of the web source on the SN may betracked in any manner now known or later developed. The mentions may betracked as a reward or bonus for verifying an account on the SN. Thementions may be direct or indirect mentions.

In Step 240, reports of the mentions are generated. The reports mayinclude any gathered and/or processed data including, but not limitedto: number of mentions, type of mentions, marketing data about theaccounts mentioning the web source, etc. Further, the reports mayinclude charts, graphs, and/or other representations. These reports maythen be provided to the user of the account or to a user that isoperating the account on behalf of a legal entity.

FIG. 2B shows a flowchart of a method for establishing a trustassociation between an account and a web source. While the various stepsin this flowchart are presented and described sequentially, one ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate that some or all of the stepsmay be executed in different orders and some or all of the steps may beexecuted in parallel. Further, in one or more embodiments of theinvention, one or more of the steps described below may be omitted,repeated, and/or performed in a different order. Accordingly, thespecific arrangement of steps shown in FIG. 2B should not be construedas limiting the scope of the invention.

In Step 250, a tag to associate an account with a web source is includedin the web source. In one or more embodiments of the invention, Step 250may proceed similarly to Step 200. As indicated by the dotted line, Step250 is performed outside of the SN.

In Step 255, a request is received to associate an account with a websource. The request may be received as discussed with regards to Step205, above.

In Step 260, the tag is identified within the web source. The tag may beidentified in any manner now known or later developed, and may beidentified as discussed with regards to Step 220, above.

In Step 265, the account is associated with the web source. Theassociation may be created in any manner now known or later developed,such as that discussed in Step 225, above.

In Step 270, a confirmation of the association is sent to the account.The confirmation may be sent in any manner now known or later developed.The confirmation may be displayed to the user of the account.Alternatively, the confirmation may be displayed to any user of the SN.

In Step 275, an indication of association for display on in a userinterface is provided. The indication may be provided in any suitablemanner, such as those discussed in Step 230, above. As in FIG. 2A,additional optional steps may be performed after Step 275, but are notshown in FIG. 2B.

The following section describes various examples of the invention. Theexamples are included to aid in the understanding of the invention andare not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows social network account (300) and two web sources: awesomewebsite (320) and the band website (330). Social network account (300)includes a handle (305), which indicates that the social network account(300) is called @$$JohnDoe$$. Social network account (300) also includesa first link (310) to “Awesome Website” (320) and a second link (315) to“The Band Website” (330). The links are displayed in an “about me”portion of social network account (300). When the user of social networkaccount (300) requests to be associated with awesome website (320) andthe band website (330) using the links in the “about me” section, thesocial network may access “Awesome Website” (320) and “The Band Website”(330) and look for indications of authorization to associate thewebsites with social network account (300). At “Awesome Website” (320),tag (325) is found. Tag (325) is not visible to users/visitors of“Awesome Website” (320); rather, tag (325) is part of the source codeassociated with the web source, where the tag in the source code is notvisible when viewing the web pages that make up the “Awesome Website”.Tag (325) identifies the handle (305) as the account associated withawesome website (320), and thus @$$JohnDoe$$ is able to be associatedwith awesome website (320). The association causes a badge (trusted(335)) to be displayed on social network account (300).

However, the level of trust may be made stronger by linking toadditional web sources and/or better web sources. Thus, @$$JohnDoe$$ hasprovided second link (315) as well, which the SN is also able to access.“The Band Website” (330) links to the handles of band members, and maybe used by the SN to create an association. In addition to finding“@$$JohnDoe$$” in the source code for the “The Band Website”, “The BandWebsite” (330) also lists an account of a second member of the band,@$$JaneSmith$$. The SN may use this as an indication that @$$JaneSmith$$is a member of the band, and may present @$$JaneSmith$$ with an optionto associate her account with the band website (330) if she so desires.Additionally, the SN can identify (using trust engine 150 of FIG. 1A,discussed above) a one-way association between the band website (330)and @$$JaneSMith$$. This one-way association may be used all of the sameways as a two-way association, discussed below, although the one-wayassociation may provide a lesser, or dulled, effect compared to a“normal” two-way association. Alternatively, in one embodiment, the SNdoes not display indications of one-way trust associations to users ofthe SN. Instead, one-way associations are used to identify content(e.g., accounts, messages, etc.) for promotion, search, discovery, andother backend purposes.

Additionally, the SN may display additional data beyond just the trusted(335) badge, such as noting that @$$JohnDoe$$ is a “member of” the band,or any other memberships, indications, etc. Further, trusted (335) badgeis color coded in this example, indicating that the level of trust ofthe account “@$$JohnDoe$$” is strong(er). In particular, “The BandWebsite” (330) is a very popular website, leading to a high level oftrust for the “@$$JohnDoe$$” account, in addition to two web sourcesbeing used—also leading to a strong(er) level of trust. A badge may useany manner to distinguish or indicate the strength and/or levels oftrust.

Additionally, although not shown in FIG. 3, once the SN determines thatboth “@$$JohnDoe$$” and “@$$JaneSmith$$” are both members of the band, aconnection graph may be created. This connection graph allows the SN totrack relationships that may not otherwise be identified within the SN.In this example, the SN knows that “@$$JohnDoe$$” and “@$$JaneSmith$$”know each other (and are probably friends) due to both being in the sameband.

Once the @$$JohnDoe$$ account is trusted, many actions may be taken bythe SN using this information. For example, the account may be promotedin searches, content generated by the account may be promoted and/ordisplayed more frequently, the account may appear more frequently as asuggested account to follow, and/or many other actions. It will beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the benefit of thisdisclosure, that a trusted account may receive many benefits and manyactions may be taken using the knowledge that a given account is trustedand, as such, the invention should not be limited to the above examples.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show a second example in accordance with one or moreembodiments of the invention. Specifically, FIGS. 4A and 4B show a userinterface (UI) that may be seen by a user of a social network viewingthe account discussed in FIG. 3 (e.g., @$$JohnDoe$$). FIG. 4A showsscreenshot (400), which includes trusted badge (405). Trusted badge(405) indicates that the @$$JohnDoe$$ account has been associated withone or more web sources, thereby giving the account a higher likelihoodof being who they say they are (as it offers users alternative means toconfirm an identity of the account). Of interest is who to follow (410)which provides suggestions to users of who they should follow within theSN. These particular users (e.g., @$$JaneSmith$$ and @$$Record$$) havebeen chosen because they are associated with @$$JohnDoe$$. As discussedin FIG. 3, @$$JaneSmith$$ is also a member of “The Band” and has a trustassociation created between her account and the “The Band” website.Thus, because the user in FIG. 4A is viewing John Doe's profile,@$$JaneSmith$$ is a suggested account to follow because of herrelationship with John Doe. Similarly, @$$Record$$ is the record companyof “The Band” and may also be of interest to the user. Although notshown in this example, the record company was associated with the@$$JohnDoe$$ account via @$$JaneSmith$$.

In FIG. 4B, screenshot (420) is shown. Specifically, in FIG. 4B, theuser has hovered over, clicked on, or otherwise selected the trustedbadge (405) of FIG. 4A, causing info box (425) to appear. Info box (425)displays the web sources and other accounts used by John Doe inacquiring the trust badge. Specifically, trust association one (430) isthe web source “Awesome Website” from FIG. 3. A link to “AwesomeWebsite” is provided; enabling the user to visit “Awesome Website” anduse the information there to aid in the user's determination of whetherJohn Doe is who he says he is. A small trust badge appears next to the“Awesome Website” link, indicating that there is a confirmed associationbetween John Doe and “Awesome Website” (i.e., a tag was found in“Awesome Website,” etc.) Although not shown in this example, a websource may be listed in an info box that does not have a confirmedassociation, which would result in the trust badge not being shown.

Similarly, trust association two (435) is a web source from FIG. 3—“TheBand Website.” A link to the web source is provided, and a small trustbadge is displayed again indicating that a confirmed association existsbetween John Doe and “The Band Website.” Trust association three (440)is another account on the SN, @$$JaneSmith$$. Jane Smith is, of course,also a member of “The Band.” A small trust badge is displayed next to@$$JaneSmith$$ indicating that there is a confirmed association betweenthe two accounts. In this instance, the confirmed relationship may befrom the same web source (e.g., The Band Website, the record labelwebsite, etc.), different web sources, direct actions between the twoaccounts, and/or any suitable source.

Although not shown in FIG. 4B, in the event that info box (425) isunable to display all of the associations in a single view, a subset ofthe associations may be displayed. The subset may be selected based onmany different factors including, but not limited to: number of visitsto the web source, number of followers/friends of an account,popularity, distance between accounts in the connection graph, relevanceto the account whose profile is being viewed, trust level of the relatedaccount or web source, etc. Alternatively, or in addition to the above,info box (425) may be able to expand, scroll, or otherwise accommodatedisplaying as many associations as an account may have.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented on virtually any type ofcomputing system regardless of the platform being used. For example, thecomputing system may be one or more mobile devices (e.g., laptopcomputer, smart phone, personal digital assistant, tablet computer, orother mobile device), desktop computers, servers, blades in a serverchassis, or any other type of computing device or devices that includesat least the minimum processing power, memory, and input and outputdevice(s) to perform one or more embodiments of the invention. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 5, the computing system (500) may include oneor more computer processor(s) (502), associated memory (504) (e.g.,random access memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory, etc.), one ormore storage device(s) (506) (e.g., a hard disk, an optical drive suchas a compact disk (CD) drive or digital versatile disk (DVD) drive, aflash memory stick, etc.), and numerous other elements andfunctionalities. The computer processor(s) (502) may be an integratedcircuit for processing instructions. For example, the computerprocessor(s) may be one or more cores, or micro-cores of a processor.The computing system (500) may also include one or more input device(s)(510), such as a touchscreen, keyboard, mouse, microphone, touchpad,electronic pen, or any other type of input device. Further, thecomputing system (500) may include one or more output device(s) (508),such as a screen (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasmadisplay, touchscreen, cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor, projector, orother display device), a printer, external storage, or any other outputdevice. One or more of the output device(s) may be the same or differentfrom the input device(s). The computing system (500) may be connected toa network (512) (e.g., a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN) such as the Internet, mobile network, or any other type ofnetwork) via a network interface connection (not shown). The input andoutput device(s) may be locally or remotely (e.g., via the network(512)) connected to the computer processor(s) (502), memory (504), andstorage device(s) (506). Many different types of computing systemsexist, and the aforementioned input and output device(s) may take otherforms.

Software instructions in the form of computer readable program code toperform embodiments of the invention may be stored, in whole or in part,temporarily or permanently, on a non-transitory computer readable mediumsuch as a CD, DVD, storage device, a diskette, a tape, flash memory,physical memory, or any other computer readable storage medium.Specifically, the software instructions may correspond to computerreadable program code that when executed by a processor(s), isconfigured to perform embodiments of the invention.

Further, one or more elements of the aforementioned computing system(500) may be located at a remote location and connected to the otherelements over a network (512). Further, embodiments of the invention maybe implemented on a distributed system having a plurality of nodes,where each portion of the invention may be located on a different nodewithin the distributed system. In one embodiment of the invention, thenode corresponds to a distinct computing device. Alternatively, the nodemay correspond to a computer processor with associated physical memory.The node may alternatively correspond to a computer processor ormicro-core of a computer processor with shared memory and/or resources.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of thisdisclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised whichdo not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein.Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by theattached claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for establishing a trust association,comprising: receiving, by a server, a request to associate a web sourcewith a first account, the request comprising a first link to the websource; accessing, by the server, the web source in response to therequest to associate; locating, by the server and within the web source,a first tag associated with the first account; creating, by the serverand in response to locating the first tag within the web source, a firsttrust association between the first account and the web source; andproviding, by the server, an indication of the first trust associationfor display in a user interface of a client device.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first tag comprises a handle of the first account,and wherein the first tag identifies a first relationship between thefirst account and a second account.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: identifying, using the first tag, the first relationshipbetween the first account and the second account; confirming, usingsecond account, the first relationship; and creating a second trustassociation between the first account and the second account.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: locating, within the web source,a second tag associated with a third account; sending, to the thirdaccount, an association request; receiving, from the third account, aconfirmation to the association request; and creating a third trustassociation between the third account and the web source and a secondrelationship between the third account and the first account.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising: creating a connection graph basedon the second relationship.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein theindication of the first trust association comprises an element for atrust level.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the trust level is basedon one selected from a group consisting of: a popularity of the websource, and a quantity of web sources used.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein a content item created by the first account is promoted in asearch result based on the first trust association.
 9. A method forestablishing a trust association, comprising: receiving, by a server andfrom a client device associated with a first account, a request toassociate the first account with a web source; identifying, by theserver and within the web source, a first tag associated with the firstaccount; creating, by the server and in response to the first tag, afirst trust association between the first account and the web source;sending, by the server and to the client device, a first confirmation ofcreating the first trust association; and providing, by the server, anindication of the first trust association for display in a userinterface of a client device.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein thefirst tag comprises a handle of the first account, and wherein the firsttag identifies a first relationship between the first account and asecond account.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:identifying, using the first tag, the first relationship between thefirst account and the second account; confirming, using second account,the first relationship; and creating a second trust association betweenthe first account and the second account.
 12. The method of claim 9,further comprising: locating, within the web source, a second tagassociated with a third account; sending, to the third account, anassociation request; receiving, from the third account, a secondconfirmation to the association request; and creating a third trustassociation between the third account and the web source and a secondrelationship between the third account and the first account.
 13. Themethod of claim 12, further comprising: creating a connection graphbased on the second relationship.
 14. The method of claim 9, wherein theindication of the first trust association comprises an element for atrust level.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the trust level isbased on one selected from a group consisting of: a popularity of theweb source, and a quantity of web sources used.
 16. The method of claim9, wherein a content item created by the first account is promoted in asearch result based on the first trust association.
 17. A system,comprising: a server, executing an application for establishing a trustassociation and comprising functionality to: receive a request toassociate a web source with a first account, the request comprising afirst link to the web source; access the web source in response to therequest to associate; locate, within the web source, a first tagassociated with the first user; create, in response to locating thefirst tag within the web source, a first trust association between thefirst account and the web source in the SN; and provide an indication ofthe first trust association for display in a user interface of a clientdevice.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first tag comprises ahandle of the first account, and wherein the first tag identifies afirst relationship between the first account and a second account. 19.The system of claim 18, the server further comprising functionality to:identify, using the first tag, the first relationship between the firstaccount and the second account; confirm, using second account, therelationship; and create a second trust association between the firstaccount and the second account.
 20. The system of claim 17, the serverfurther comprising functionality to: locate, within the web source, asecond tag associated with a third account; send, to the third account,an association request; receive, from the third account, a confirmationto the association request; and create a third trust association betweenthe third account and the web source and a second relationship betweenthe third account and the first account.